IT IS REMARKABLE how many political “solutions” today are dealing with problems created by previous political “solutions.” Three examples that come to mind are the housing market crisis, wildfires in Southern California and water shortages in the West.

Congress and the Bush administration are vying to come up with a solution to the housing crisis, brought on by widespread defaults on home mortgage loans — especially defaults by those who took out risky “subprime” loans.

Why were borrowers taking out risky loans? And why were lenders willing to lend? In both cases, the government was a factor.

Many people took out risky mortgages to buy a house because housing prices were so high that it was the only way they could own a home.

In the Bay Area, where housing prices are the highest in the nation, risky interest-only loans went from being 11 percent of all new mortgages in 2002 to being 66 percent of all new mortgages in 2005.

Studies show that housing prices are highest where government restrictions on building are most severe. That is the ugly result of pretty words like “open space.”

Why were lenders lending to people whose prospects of repaying the loans were below average?

Government laws and policies, especially the Community Reinvestment Act, pressured lenders to invest in people and places where they would not invest otherwise. Government also created the temporary very low interest rates that made the mortgages seem affordable for the moment.

Now that politicians have created this mess, they are ready to ride to the rescue.

As for the flames in Southern California, tragic as that is, this has happened time and again before — in the very same places in the very same time of year, just like hurricanes.

Why would people risk building million-dollar homes in the known paths of wildfires? For the same reason people choose to live in the known paths of hurricanes. Because the government — that is, the taxpayers — will get stuck with a lot of the costs of dealing with those dangers and the costs of rebuilding.

Why is there such a huge amount of inflammable vegetation over such a wide area that fires can reach unstoppable proportions by the time they get to places where people live? Because “open space” has become a political sacred cow.

The same severe government restrictions on building that drive home prices sky high also lead to vast areas with nothing but trees and bushes. Where it doesn’t rain for months, that’s dangerous.

No matter how much open space there is, it is never enough for environmental extremists, who will make political trouble if anyone is allowed to break up those miles and miles of solid vegetation with buildings.

Government preserves all the conditions for wildfires and subsidizes people who live in their path.

As for water shortages, they are as endemic to California as wildfires. But when an economist hears of a shortage that persists for years, the first question is: Why doesn’t the price rise until supply and demand are equal? If you said, “the government,” you are right.

The federal government’s water projects supply much of the water used in California that enables agriculture to flourish in what would otherwise be a desert.

The government sells this water to farmers at prices artificially lower than the cost of providing it — and at a tiny fraction of what people pay for water in cities.

Is it news, at this late date, that people waste things that they get cheap? It’s been happening for centuries.

But none of the political “solutions,” such as drastic water rationing schemes, will touch the cheap prices of water that lead farmers to grow crops requiring huge amounts of water in a desert.

Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.

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